City of Whyalla

The original Aboriginal owners of the land have documennted the previous 40,000 years in their Dreaming. However, all of Australia’s post European history, from the first settlement at Sydney Cove until today, is crammed into around 225 years. The residents of Whyalla have a similar, if not more hurried and compacted history.

Hummock Hill, a small rise on the western shores of Upper Spencer Gulf, was named by Matthew Flinders on 9 March 1802. The catalyst for the early European settlement, and the eventual explosion in population after World War ll, was the discovery of iron ore at Iron Knob in the mid 1800’s.